Army's Insurgent Tracking Software Used to Track Gangs

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
Joined
May 9, 2000
Messages
75,399
MIT researchers have adapted a piece of successful battlefield technology for domestic use. The tracking software was used in Afghanistan to reliably identify insurgents and now has been adapted to identify American street gangs.

The Army has used a number of similar pieces of software to visualize the relationships between suspected and known insurgents involved with the development of improvised explosive devices. It works by grouping many individuals by levels of association—and by doing so, gives researchers a way to recognize system-wide patterns and predict who might be involved in a particular operation.
Click to expand...
 
well gangs do represent a more significant threat to the united states than any insurgents currently do. They're more organised, better armed (well with small arms at least unless you go south of the border), more numerous, far more active, are better protected by the law, and are within the united states borders and neighbouring countries.

They'd be stupid not to track their movements with whatever means they have available.

I mean sure they're less likely to intentionally target strategic military targets or largely populated sites with the intention of killing innocent people. However, countless innocent bystanders get caught in the crossfire either from turf wars, from committing other crimes, or evading law enforcement. Plus, they're getting rich from the misery of people and the degradation of society by flooding the streets with hard drugs.

Additionally, many gangs have links to insurgent forces or could be considered insurgents themselves.
 
gaspah said:
well gangs do represent a more significant threat to the united states than any insurgents currently do. They're more organised, better armed (well with small arms at least unless you go south of the border), more numerous, far more active, are better protected by the law, and are within the united states borders and neighbouring countries.

They'd be stupid not to track their movements with whatever means they have available.

I mean sure they're less likely to intentionally target strategic military targets or largely populated sites with the intention of killing innocent people. However, countless innocent bystanders get caught in the crossfire either from turf wars, from committing other crimes, or evading law enforcement. Plus, they're getting rich from the misery of people and the degradation of society by flooding the streets with hard drugs.

Additionally, many gangs have links to insurgent forces or could be considered insurgents themselves.
Click to expand...

Not only this, but by decreasing the security of low-income neighborhoods, it decreases the residents's quality of life and the ability to work towards a stable job, education, and other factors of socioeconomic status (aka the American Dream).
 
Why stop there? We can use it to track homos and punk rockers while we are at it.
 
Until gangs and gang members in the US are declared as enemy terrorist comabatants, then a lot won't happen that needs to happen. There are whole swaths of areas that are run by them and even cops don't dare go in.
 
Alai said:
(aka the American Dream).
Click to expand...

people think this still exists? as a dream, yea. rags-to-riches stories are a thing of the past. today, odds are about the same as winning the lottery no matter how hard you work.

Methadras said:
Until gangs and gang members in the US are declared as enemy terrorist comabatants, then a lot won't happen that needs to happen.
Click to expand...

please no. everything bad is terrorist activity nowadays and such an extreme term is used so widely, it's losing its meaning. you protest? you're a terrorist.
 
Don't bother reading the previous comments fellas, it's your basic ignorant nerd rants about how little they know about living in a dysfunctional environment and economic disparity.
 
temujin987 said:
please no. everything bad is terrorist activity nowadays and such an extreme term is used so widely, it's losing its meaning. you protest? you're a terrorist.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's why they did not use the word in the Fort Hood shooting, or Benghazi...etc...
 
It's a good thing thing they make themselves so easy to find, with tattoo markers on their face, or the really stupid ones, that have the gang or city name put across their forehead, or they draw attention to themselves when the police show up to have a chat about something else, and they use their one year old as a hostage/human shield.
 
I just find it odd that they are saying military software is being put to domestic LE use. Relationship mapping software for detecting this kind of stuff came form law enforcement before hitting the military. At thje very least, interpol had been using such things since the late 80s/early 90s.

It will be of most use in disrupting the business of gangs. I leave determining if it will make the areas they operate in more or less safe as an exercise for the reader.
 
There are some pretty serious gangs out there right now. They have flooded in from El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico, making the Bloods and Crips look like they do charity work for the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.
 
Methadras said:
Until gangs and gang members in the US are declared as enemy terrorist comabatants, then a lot won't happen that needs to happen. There are whole swaths of areas that are run by them and even cops don't dare go in.
Click to expand...

Yep. And not just big cities, either. I personally think that all gang members should be shot. I don't know if the police are scared or paid off (probably scared) but there is a lot happening right in front of them that they ignore. In my town, I've heard there were too many connections to the Mexican drug cartels so they have to tread carefully when doing drug busts. That's why my wife and I are moving out of the area (a lot of people already have). It's getting way too bad where I live, and a couple hours north (Yakima), it's a lot worse.

I think they should be tracked, but I think they should be controlled and incarcerated. They are above the law because of intimidation. A huge crackdown would be great. It's a big problem in a lot of areas.
 
temujin987 said:
people think this still exists? as a dream, yea. rags-to-riches stories are a thing of the past. today, odds are about the same as winning the lottery no matter how hard you work.
Click to expand...

With that attitude, sure. But, I've seen some people that lived in poverty to go to college and while not rich are making $100k+ a year doing networking or other good jobs. Going from a single wide trailer in a trailer court to a nice two story home on a nice chunk of land....

Building a business from the street to a multi-millionaire may be more difficult, but that's not really the American dream....
 
LeninGHOLA said:
There are some pretty serious gangs out there right now. They have flooded in from El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico, making the Bloods and Crips look like they do charity work for the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.
Click to expand...

That's no joke right there. MS-13 is probably the most vicious gang present on US soil right now. Tracking them with this adapted software is only a good thing...if LE Agencies can manage to catch them at a rate fast enough to diminish their street numbers.
 
DejaWiz said:
That's no joke right there. MS-13 is probably the most vicious gang present on US soil right now. Tracking them with this adapted software is only a good thing...if LE Agencies can manage to catch them at a rate fast enough to diminish their street numbers.
Click to expand...

There are Sureños footsoldiers starting to take over a town I go by on the way to work. Not people I'd like to mess with.
 
Ur_Mom said:
With that attitude, sure. But, I've seen some people that lived in poverty to go to college and while not rich are making $100k+ a year doing networking or other good jobs. Going from a single wide trailer in a trailer court to a nice two story home on a nice chunk of land....

Building a business from the street to a multi-millionaire may be more difficult, but that's not really the American dream....
Click to expand...

I was raised on USDA powdered milk, blocks of American cheese, canned peanut butter (you have to stir it HARD), etc. Poor white trash. I wasn't a "good" kid, and hung with a fairly rough crowd.

I started my business by selling everything I own, then working 80-100 hours a week, 7 days a week, no holidays, until it started doing well. 18 months before taking a day off. No loans, no government help (lots of gov't hassle).

It can be done today. If you are willing to pay the price.
 
LeninGHOLA said:
There are Sureños footsoldiers starting to take over a town I go by on the way to work. Not people I'd like to mess with.
Click to expand...

It's different in the bay area/Silicon Valley, where the Surenos were a majority gang, it's now flipped, it's nortenos with the southern guys surrounded in the middle. Personally I'm more concerned about Triad's, screw with those guys and you will disappear...And Russian Mafia in Europe is a big problem as well, all snuck in on the eastern block collapsing and the Kosovo war.
 
temujin987 said:
please no. everything bad is terrorist activity nowadays and such an extreme term is used so widely, it's losing its meaning. you protest? you're a terrorist.
Click to expand...

Are you saying that you would rather gangs not be identified as domestic terrorist organizations and therefore should not fall under scrutiny federal, state, or local? That seems awfully short sighted. I'm not talking about protestors. I'm talking about criminal organizations called gangs that control entire swaths of communities with their lawlessness.
 
Methadras said:
Are you saying that you would rather gangs not be identified as domestic terrorist organizations and therefore should not fall under scrutiny federal, state, or local? That seems awfully short sighted. I'm not talking about protestors. I'm talking about criminal organizations called gangs that control entire swaths of communities with their lawlessness.
Click to expand...

That's what he's saying and I agree.

A much better alternative is ending the nonsensical drug war we've been fighting and losing for 30+ years that fuels much of this activity.

People in Chicago aren't shooting at each other to improve their marksmanship, they are doing it for drug turf.
 
zero1945 said:
That's what he's saying and I agree.

A much better alternative is ending the nonsensical drug war we've been fighting and losing for 30+ years that fuels much of this activity.

People in Chicago aren't shooting at each other to improve their marksmanship, they are doing it for drug turf.
Click to expand...

Sure, but there will still be organized crime and gangs with or without drugs.
 
zero1945 said:
Of course. But we are exasperating the problem in a pretty significant way. Creating black markets always lends itself to this.
Click to expand...

It certainly doesn't help. But, human trafficking, Siberian Tiger balls and freshly harvested human organs will continue to drive criminal organizations. People want money and power, and some are willing to kill for it. That will not change. Look at some of the shit you can buy with bitcoins.
 
zero1945 said:
Of course. But we are exasperating the problem in a pretty significant way. Creating black markets always lends itself to this.
Click to expand...

Even if certain drugs were legalized there would always be a black market since it would be unlikely you could ever get all drugs legalized ... even a country like the Netherlands (which has a very liberal drug policy) doesn't allow every drug to be legal ... also, government would never want legal drugs to be too inexpensive due to the fear it would encourage people to partake so there would be a market for less expensive drugs ;)
 
MajorDomo said:
MIT researchers have adapted a piece of successful battlefield technology for domestic use. The tracking software was used in Afghanistan to reliably identify insurgents and now has been adapted to identify American street gangs.
Click to expand...
Link is blocked here at work. I assume its just a satelite color spectrum analyzer and they went down a little further on the color pallete from "terrorist tan" to "gangster black"? Sorry, I guess its a little early in the week for blatant racist jokes :p
 
So basically they have a machine that can tell if you are wearing blue or red.
 
LeninGHOLA said:
There are some pretty serious gangs out there right now. They have flooded in from El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico, making the Bloods and Crips look like they do charity work for the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.
Click to expand...
Pretty easy to do when so many people in Congress don't care about securing the border. And now they're currently trying to help those illegal alien gang members become U.S. citizens.
zero1945 said:
People in Chicago aren't shooting at each other to improve their marksmanship, they are doing it for drug turf.
Click to expand...
There shouldn't be any shootings in Chicago since Chicago has strong gun restrictions and even an assault weapons ban.
 
The irony is the software used was originally designed for law enforcement personnel
 
I can see where such software criteria can easily be changed for different effect.

I'm sure you can figure out likely Tea Party members and give the list to the IRS for audits.
 
OGOC said:
There shouldn't be any shootings in Chicago since Chicago has strong gun restrictions and even an assault weapons ban.
Click to expand...

I know. I'm pretty sure that's why Rahm's Wild West isn't a bigger news story. The gun grabbers can't make a case of it.

Whatever happened to that guy that shot a bunch of people in California recently? How fast did that drop off the news?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top